{"id":6065,"date":"2020-02-17T17:24:10","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T17:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.white-baos.com\/how-to-acquire-the-spanish-real-estate-property-for-its-use-and-possession-for-a-long-time-usucapion-adverse-possession\/"},"modified":"2020-09-10T07:24:29","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T07:24:29","slug":"how-to-acquire-the-spanish-real-estate-property-for-its-use-and-possession-for-a-long-time-usucapion-adverse-possession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.white-baos.com\/en\/how-to-acquire-the-spanish-real-estate-property-for-its-use-and-possession-for-a-long-time-usucapion-adverse-possession\/","title":{"rendered":"How to acquire the Spanish real estate property for its use and possession for a long time. Usucapion. Adverse possession."},"content":{"rendered":"
There are several ways to acquire ownership of a real estate property under Spanish law. The best known is the transfer of the property or ‘tradition’, which consists of the act of delivery by means of sale, a gift or some other recognised means.<\/p>\n
Today’s article will focus on another way of acquiring the property which consists of the so-called usucapion or usucapio of assets.<\/p>\n
Usucapio is an informal legal term used to refer to what in English is known as adverse possession (or colloquially ‘squatter’s rights’) or acquisitive prescription .<\/p>\n
This is defined as the legal instrument that consists in the acquisition of a property by its possession, as an owner following a lapse of time or periods established in Law. Basically, it consists of the possibility of acquiring the ownership of a property, by taking it over and becoming recognised as the owner.<\/p>\n
Recognition of inhabitancy of the property will have been public, in good faith and uninterrupted, which means that no one entitled to it or with a better right has contested such possession for a certain period of time.<\/p>\n
The usucapio can be ordinary or extraordinary.<\/p>\n
Ordinary usucapio<\/strong> demands good faith and fair title. Good faith consists in the belief that you really are the owner of the property or ignorance of the fact that there may be a problem that invalidates your title of the property.<\/p>\n A fair title means a document that is enough to legally transfer the property: a contract of sale, a gift, a court resolution, etc.<\/p>\n The time that must elapse to acquire a property by ordinary usucapio is 10 years between ‘present’ people, and 20 years between those who are ‘absent’ people. The Law defines absent people as those who have a domicile overseas.<\/p>\n Unlike ordinary usucapion, extraordinary usucapion<\/strong> does not require a fair title, that is, having a document that legally justifies the possession, or good faith (the belief that you own the property or do not know that there is problem in your title). <\/p>\n In this case, there is no difference between present and absent. However, the period of time that must elapse to acquire ownership, rises, from 10 or 20 years, to 30 years.<\/span><\/p>\n To sum up, the important factor in the case of ordinary and extraordinary usucapio is the time involved and that possession during that time is uninterrupted.<\/p>\n The civil code establishes that an interruption occurs when the person in possession of the property receives a judicial notification in this regard, for example, if another person who considers himself as the owner and submits an eviction claim, etc.<\/p>\n Formalising the ownership of a property through usucapio is not an automatic right and must be declared by a Judge.<\/p>\n To do this, a claim for the declaration of ownership by acquisitive prescription must be presented, against the person or persons who may own or have title to the property.<\/p>\n If you believe that you may be entitled to acquire a property through this method, or you already live in a property that is owned by another person and you wish to interrupt the term of the “usucapio”, contact our law firm and we will help you.<\/strong><\/p>\n The information provided in this article is not intended to be legal advice, but merely conveys general information related to legal issues.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Carlos Baos (Lawyer)<\/p>\n White & Baos<\/p>\n Tel: +34 966 426 185<\/p>\n E-mail: info@white-baos.com<\/p>\n White & Baos 2020- All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are several ways to acquire ownership of a real estate property under Spanish law. The best known is the transfer of the property or ‘tradition’, which consists of the act of delivery by means of sale, a gift or some other recognised means. Today’s article will focus on another way of acquiring the property […]<\/p>\n